Phantasm - William Byrd - BBC Music Magazine

01 August 2011BBC Music MagazineKate Bolton

BBC Music: Disc of the Month

Angelic and divine

The music of William Byrd has been something of an obsession
for the members of Phantasm, featuring on their early recordings Still Music of the Spheres (1996) and Byrd Song (1998), as well as their 2004
collection The Four Temperaments. Here they return again to the Elizabethan
composer with the benefit of nearly two decades' performing experience, to
gather together his complete output for viol consort, bar the fragmentary or
spurious works. Spanning some 40 years
of Byrd's life, this is a condense but subtly varied album of styles: courtly
dances interleave with cryptic spiritual and devotional works - fleeting expressions
of the recusant Catholic's unwavering faith - and variations on popular Tudor
songs, like the magnificent tour de force,
Browning. Among the finest works are the Fantasias,
which range from lush-textured six-part tapestries to the laconic three-part
pieces, haiku-like in their poetic expressivity. Throughout them Byrd retains the ‘Angelicall
and Divine' qualities that his contemporaries remarked upon - qualities that
Phantasm captures perfectly in this collection.

The ensemble's director, Laurence Dreyfus (himself something
of a Renaissance man), combines rigorous intellect with sensitive
musicianship. He leads his colleagues
through a series of urbane discourses exploring the abstract, cerebral nature
of Byrd's consort music, beyond its earthy, folk-influenced style. Ensemble and intonation are flawless; keen
rhythms and feather-light bowings give a lightness of touch to the dances. The recorded balance is acutely judged, too,
ensuring that Byrd's contrapuntal lines are always distinct. Listeners with surround-sound are placed
thrillingly in the centre of these musical conversations.

If it's the complete consort works you're after, Fretwork's
1994 disc on Virgin Classics makes a strong competitor - a recording which,
despite its nearly 20 years of age, stands the test of time superbly well. Fretwork's approach is more visceral, tempos
are predominately slower and timbre is richer, darker, thanks to the resonant
recording and some robust playing from the bass viol. By comparison, Phantasm's approach is rather
more agile and airy and, with the focus thrown more on the treble and tenor
viols, the consort sound has greater luminescence. Readers familiar with the ensemble's other
CDs may find these performances more restrained, more introspective, perhaps
more rationally controlled than before, but the approach is fitting for Byrd's
terse, pellucid style and the melancholy spirit that haunted his age.